After looking all over for a good deal in the UK, I can't help but be envious of the prices of some SW Lego sets in the USA, which seem cheap even now the $/£ rate has fallen.

For example, on S@H, the UCS Tie Advanced at $69.99 seems a particularly good buy, and something that is not even available any longer in the UK. I'm surprised that there aren't any available to ship to UK at the moment on Ebay given the price.

In March I shall be visiting Florida on holiday, and wondered if I could expect to find sets like UCS Tie Advanced available at a similar price in the shops. If not, do you think it will it be possible for me to order online and get the set shipped to my hotel (as lego won't ship internationally)?

Your best bet would be to try the LEGO store at Downtown Disney in Orlando. They would be selling it for the same price as shop@home, and if they don't have it in stock but it's still available online, I believe they'll ship it to you for free._________________My BrickLink store

Yes, my in-laws were at the LEGO store in Portland, Oregon in July 2008, and they purchased a 10179 for me. The store didn't have it in stock at the time, so they shipped it to me in Vancouver, BC (Canada). Final price paid was US$525 ($500 + 5% GST tax).

Coincidentally, I was in Orlando over Christmas... they have the sale prices and such in the Downtown Disney store, but I'm not sure if they'll still be at the same price in March._________________Neeeoowwwwwww

What happen to Gumby is not necessarily the norm for all lego stores. Being that lego store was close to the us/canada border, he lucked out but I tried the same thing from a lego store in boston and they could not ship the death star (when it was out of stock) without paying the canadian price. So I don't expect downtown disney will ship the tie advance to UK for you, if you don't find it there. I would call first to see if they have any in stock.

I have done the online purchases and shipping it to a hotel before but it is risky and stressful sometimes because you cannot guarantee the shop@home will ship to your hotel within the same time frame you will be at the hotel. One time, when amazon had some really good sales on the 7264 imperial inspection that one year when it was like $35, I had it shipped to my hotel in disney. it did not arrive in time during my stay (even though it was ordered weeks in advance) and then I had leave instructions for the hotel staff to reject my order and get a refund later. knowing what I know about the value of 7264 I should have gotten a hotel staff to accept it and then ship it to me in canada but that would require a really nice staff to do that for you. Point is to get it shipped way early (more than 2 weeks at least) and let your hotel know its coming.

Buy loads of lego, taken the bags and stuff out of the boxes and flat pack them. Buy a new and cheap suitcase from Target or something and take em home in that

Admitedly, I didn't do this with any large purchases particularly, but the principle is the same.

Just make sure you don't spend more than your customs limit!

I think his dilemna was not being able to find his wants in the retail stores and having to resort to finding them online (where the good sales are) and having them shipped to us address before bringing them back to UK.

there are also mailbox companies that offer their address so that you can ship US only products. only constraint left is being able to buy on a us online site with a foreign credit card. If you have to provide a us address for the credit card, try using your US mailbox address. You can pick them up or have them ship to UK for an expensive shipping fee (since most use dhl or fedex but if you find one that uses usps priority then it would be cheaper). They typically keep your packages for up to 2 weeks and then you have to start paying so again coordination with your hotel stay is critical.

I was at the Orlando Disney Lego store on December 27th and there were at least 12 UCS Vader's TIE marked down to $70. When I saw that it had been reduced on S@H the day before my trip it got me really excited about driving over there. I had just been thinking earlier in the week that if Lego would reduce the set from $100 down $75 that I'd definitley get one and so it worked out perfectly. _________________The Jinja Ninja wrote: The extended edition includes those scenes (which were replaced with the boulder sequence in the Raiders we know and love) as well as some revisions to the rest of the movie including 'Belloq shot first'

Thanks for all the advice, really useful, especially about the timeframe thing with hotels; sometimes it's easy to get blinded by a good deal, and I'm a natural optimist so never think anything will go wrong, so it's good to have someone remind me of the potential pitfalls!

Looking forward to checking out the Downtown Disney lego store; although I should have mentioned that this isn't just a holiday, it's actually part of my honeymoon(!), so I had better not get the marriage off to a bad start by spending time building in the room! Even if she does know what I'm like...!